


Ache

by live_with_love



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Control, Control Issues, Introspection, Light Bondage, Multi, No Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-23
Updated: 2012-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-16 22:04:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/544327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/live_with_love/pseuds/live_with_love
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Control is something Yami has always found difficult to give up. (Mostly Kaiba/Yami, Yugi is mentioned only briefly but he is still there and in the relationship. Spoilers for the end of the series, AU from the end of the series)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ache

**Author's Note:**

> AU after the end of the series in that Yami chose to stay and still inhabits the same body as Yugi. They're still under the age of 18 but both characters are at least 16.  
> Ficlet written in response to a prompt on my writing tumblr ( http://magicinflames-writing.tumblr.com ). Contains bondage but no sex.

Yami shudders when cold fingers brush the back of his neck, eyes slipping closed in mute surrender. Yet his breath sticks fast in his throat as the cool touch pauses on the silver chain, fingers curling around it just enough for manicured nails to rest on skin. It is this more than anything else done to him tonight that makes him buck against his bonds and fight the cuffs that have held him secure since they began. His arms ache from holding himself upright, restrained from a heavy steel chain set into the ceiling, but the pain is forgotten in a flash of fear at the touch.

Kaiba does nothing to reassure him, simply keeping his hand there and waiting; long nights of trial and error have led them to this final attempt and he is certain he knows what is to come. His patience is rewarded when Yami’s eyes snap open; he’s struggled too long against himself and lost the fight. Frantic, the pharaoh-turned-boy twists to seek out the cool fire of Kaiba’s gaze.

He stills, then, though his chest continues to rise and fall in short, sharp bursts caused by that hand, those fingers, still _there_. They haven’t moved and Kaiba’s impassive eyes tell him that they _won’t_ move. Bit by bit, Yami slumps back against his bonds, soothed immeasurably by those feelings that pass between them without words. Kaiba is calm, strong, patient; Yami knows that he will not allow anything to go wrong. Though it goes against instincts honed by a courtly upbringing, he _trusts_ this man.

Control. It had always been something difficult for him to give up; he had grown so used to having it, to not even questioning it, that submitting to that child whose destiny had become so entwined with his own was difficult enough. Submitting to a person he had _chosen_ to be with was immeasurably harder.

Yet now, Yami’s eyes slide closed and his breathing slows as the minutes tick by with nothing changing. Kaiba’s hand is still there and it is, in a way, reassuring; Yami is helpless to prevent it if Kaiba wishes to yank the millennium puzzle away and banish him once more to the dark recesses of Yugi’s mind but now… he accepts it. He accepts that he has chosen, for better or for worse, to give himself to this man and enter into, not slavery, something far less definable.

Kaiba is someone he can give his control to, someone he needn’t be ‘perfect’ with. It has taken him a long time to accept that. Yugi’s urgings that Kaiba is someone they can both trust had only taken him so far: it was difficult to learn to trust in a relationship you could only take part in half the time. Yet, somehow, they had all made this work.

 

His lips quirk up into that half smile he is even now unused to giving to anyone but Mokuba and Kaiba lets the chain fall from his grip. Watching the shudder of relief that passes through Yami, he waits for a moment before freeing him. Shocked by the sudden need to support himself, Yami stumbles. Kaiba swoops in and with one movement catches him, arms around his chest, and settles them both down into their bed, Yami resting on top of him.

Noting the slight tremble in his limbs, Yami curls up and buries his face into Kaiba’s shoulder, taking several, long moments to calm himself. Kaiba’s only response is to hook one arm around his waist and rest his other hand on Yami’s shoulders. The soft, warm weight is all that is needed.

Kaiba is sure, as they recover from the aftershocks together, that others would sully this tranquil moment with whispered, redundant reassurances and empty words of praise. Yami already knows how proud he is of him.

The words aren’t needed. They never are, anymore.


End file.
